Santa Cruz eviction notice rescinded, tenants say

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Albert Brett is one of several veterans living in an eight-unit apartment complex on California Avenue at Bay Street. He got an eviction notice from the landlord to move out by Oct. 31, and now that notice has been rescinded. (Dan Coyro — Santa Cruz Sentinel)

SANTA CRUZ — Veterans who were facing an Oct. 31 eviction notice from their new landlord reported good news Monday — the landlord has rescinded the eviction and will accept their federal housing vouchers for rent.

“Without Measure M, there won’t be a protection for the 60 percent of people who live here,” said Albert Brett, 69, an Army veteran with pancreatic cancer, hosting a press conference outside his two-bedroom apartment at 526 California Ave. “We’re lucky we have a landlord that follows the law.”

Brett has lived here for two years. He and fellow veteran John Doty, 71, were splitting the rent, $1,850 a month with federal Section 8 vouchers paying part of the rent for them. The Sentinel reported on the eviction notice in September.

Dan Decker of Los Gatos, who bought the California Avenue eightplex in July for $2.93 million, told the Sentinel in September that he was “real familiar with my obligations,” then declined to say more. He could not be reached to comment Monday.

Section 8 is the federal government program aimed at helping very low-income families, the elderly and the disabled to afford housing; some vouchers are specifically for veterans who have been homeless such as Brett. Those with vouchers pay 30 percent of their income for rent and the federal government pays the rest, but many landlords are reluctant to accept the vouchers when plenty of tenants can pay the rent without government paperwork.

Measure M is the Nov. 6 ballot measure to change the city charter to make rent control and just cause eviction rules permanent and create an elected board to enforce those regulations.

Those rules are not in effect now, but temporary protections governing evictions and rent increases approved by the City Council have been in effect since February and will expire after the election.

Santa Cruz City Attorney Tony Condotti said there have been discussions about the issue, but the council has deferred action.

The temporary rules say the owner cannot evict a tenant who is 62, disabled or terminally ill unless the landlord or close relative moving in is 62 or disabled.

The city’s temporary rules for just cause eviction apply to Section 8 rentals, according to Jenny Panetta, executive director of the Housing Authority of Santa Cruz County, which administers the federal Section 8 program locally.

Without those temporary rules, the tenants at 526 California Ave. who received eviction notices would not be able to stay, according to Zav Hershfield, a UC Santa Cruz alum and activist with the Movement for Housing Justice who helped write Measure M.

“Their housing search would be pretty damned difficult,” Hershfield said, noting an Aug. 27 plea from the UC Santa Cruz housing chief to faculty and staff, asking them to rent a room to help house “several hundred students” on a wait list for housing.

“Hundreds of people are in our situation — seniors, disabled, veterans,” said Donna Robles, who is married to Brett.

“Where do you go? Coral Street?” said Brett, referring to the Homeless Services Center shelter. “I have an income of $50,000 a year and I’m considered a pauper.”

Brett said he expects the rent will increase Jan. 1.

He said the new owner remodeled one 770-square-foot unit and rents it to four UCSC students.

In August, the rent was listed as $2,800 a month on HotPads.com.

Another renter in the complex is Logan McCann, 55, who served as an Army aviation mechanic during the First Gulf War and has been working at UCSC. He said the landlord offered him $5,000 if he would move out by Oct. 15.

McCann, who has lived there almost three years, said he wants to stay four to six months while his retirement paperwork is processed.

“It’s not a fast process,” he said.

Nora Hensley, a UCSC student who expects to graduate in December and get a teaching credential, feels lucky she was able to rent at the California Avenue eightplex this fall.

Last year she paid $950 for a room in a house with six people. Now she’s paying $600 a month.

“I need to not pay $1,100 a month,” she said.

Lynn Renshaw, a leader in Santa Cruz Together, a local group opposed to Measure M, said, “I’m glad this was resolved in favor of the tenants.”

The group’s campaign against Measure M is focused on “avoiding new laws that will do far more harm than good,” Renshaw said, noting “Measure M’s protection that lets those over 62 stay in houses, even making it illegal for owners to move back into their own home that was rented out, will create a disincentive to rent to older people.”